Remember that show with Will Smith where he fought back against aggression? No, not the 94th Annual Academy Awards…the one with all the robots – i Robot.

For some reason when I think about A.I…not the movie with Haley Joel Osment, but Skynet’s sneaky little accomplice (it’s great for rewording work memos…and TAKING OVER THE WORLD!!!) Well, I’m reminded of the tenants of Robot law.

The Three Laws of Robotics
First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

I guess those don’t apply to A.I. AKA Artificial Intelligence. I feel it every time my mom points out one of those glossy, robot voiced YouTube videos featuring the angel Gabriel, admonishing users that if they don’t click Like and Subscribe then their prayers won’t be answered.

The countless art designs and graphics that look nice enough but lack any soul.

That fake band, The Velvet Sundown, that released two albums and amassed over 1m plays (m = millions) on Spotify before they came clean about how everything was a.i. created and I mean EVERYTHING – the music, the album artwork, the band, even their backstory!

And they are even writing books?!! Are you kidding me? And don’t get me started on the a.i. actress, just don’t.

You might be thinking, “Karma, the robots were programmed to avoid actual physical harm.” To which I respond with, “Yeah, well how do you keep yourself from harm when you lose your livelihood?”

The word livelihood, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is defined as “a means of securing the necessities of life.” Necessities of life. Let that sink in.

Now before you think I’m a tech hater or conspiracy theorists who believes my Alexa device is just being so sweet to me when she wishes me a great day after I politely ask what the weather is like outside so she can lull me into a false sense of security and trust and then…I don’t know, stop telling me the time, the weather, setting alarms or sending pot roast recipes to my phone or worse! I’m not.

I just think it needs its place. Rather than training it to reword documents, create tiktoks or try to pass off the next War and Peace, how about training it for more important yet mundane tasks like balancing budgets, creating schedules, research, etc…

I’m not against having a virtual assistant, what I don’t want is content created by machines. We have humans who create beautiful stories, flesh and blood actors who give them life – even if it is animated – camera operators, directors, singers, dancers, painters, sculptors…human stuff.

I also don’t want it involved in important and potentially harmful tasks, like in War Games. “I thought we were playing fancy chess!”

Somewhere in the MIDDLE, seems like a good place.

So here is why the topic of A.I. has been at the forefront of my mind. I am a writer. I authored a book, Amuse. A real life human created the beautiful cover and another real life human narrated the audio. My friend illustrated not one but two covers, for free, because she’s super sweet. I’ve forced her to take gifts and money whenever I could and promised her a percentage of sales.

My narrator on Audible, was contracted for 50% of profits of sales. Now here is where my dilemma comes in.

There are almost no sales.

I signed up with TikTok, hoping good ol’ BookTok would help raise my ship and I posted on FB and Insta and even here but life happens and it happened hard. So, I stopped being consistent. Social media became overwhelming and pretty much non responsive.

I don’t mind writing for myself and the occasional buyer but it hurts my heart not being able to provide my illustrator and narrator with well deserved riches.

There are articles and videos that explain how to use a.i. to market your book. I gotta say, it would be nice to be able to focus on writing, you know, actually finish books 2 & 3 and then the screenplays, yes, more than one and not have to be spending hours, making one mediocore video to share on multiple platforms for…wait for it.

CRICKETS**

But there is that part of me, that very human part of me, that feels icky about using it.

So, help me out here. What are your feelings about using a.i. as a tool (heh heh) for marketing – NOT WRITING – a.i. in general, or your favorite computers take over movie?

Mine has to be Termninator, just because the human – James Cameron – is a bad ass!

Until next time – Love and Blessings – Karma Marie